Sunday, August 24, 2008

Well, after six long weeks, our family has landed back in our little blue house in Michigan. It was such a joy being able to spend time with family, let the cousins bond, and get to travel to Tenerife. I'm sure many of you are wondering how our time went. It's really hard to actually find words to describe the trip... but suffice it to say, it seems to be a really good fit- both culturally and ministerilly (is that a word?) It is so apparent that God is moving on that island and calling people to Himself. The soil appears fertile, and we feel that God is leading us there to be workers. As far as the timing is concerned, that is entirely in God's hands. At this point though, the doors seem to be opening for us to move in that direction.

For me, the trip was much different than all the other short-term trips I've been. Being a mom now, and also looking at it from the eyes of potentially living there long-term, it brought up a lot more emotions and wrestling matches with the Lord. God showed me how strong my pride and longing for comfort is, but I've been super challenged by 2 Corinthians 4 and 5 which have given me a desire to hope in the eternal and not in the temporal.

So, as always, we appreciate your prayers as we tentatively move forward and as we seek God to work out the details.

Here are some pictures of us on the island and with various people from the church there.

Friday, August 08, 2008

Monday, August 04, 2008

Sorry for not being able to post since I arrived in Tenerife. Levi and I arrived 4 days ago, and we are finally feeling adjusted to the time difference. I don't have words to describe the beauty of this island. We read Psalm 104 the other day, and it had new meaning as we looked up at the great Teide volcano. We are encouraged by what we see God doing here in the hearts of the Tinerfenos that are coming to la Iglesia Cristiana Fuente de Paz y Esperanza (Fountain of Peace and Hope Christian Church). There were about 50 people at church Sunday (excluding all of the short-term team members). Many new people are coming and showing interest in learning about Christ.

This morning Nathan and I met with our pastor (Todd, who is here also), and the missionaries that are working here. We talked for a few hours about our fit/the need/etc of our possibly moving here. There is definintely a huge need for the gospel to go forth. There are perhaps 2000 people out of 1,000,000 that have a relationship with Jesus Christ on this island. There are many towns that have no Christian church.

So, we continue to pray and seek solutions for the schooling situation for our boys. Here it is mandatory that kids go to school at age 3! There is also a law that teachers cannot correct or repremand students. So, as you can imagine, the classes can be chaotic. So, we have to decide what to do (it is also illegal for Spaniards to home school).

I will try to post some pictures at some point. I don't have any pictures on this computer I'm using. If not now, then when we get back to the states.